The active transmitter and receiver design fits on a 4 x 1.5 mm integrated circuit (IC), designed using special transistors with high-carrier mobility (HEMTs). The trick to the tiny size is the high frequencies -- the circuit operates in the 200-280 GHz band.

Top German electronics firms like Siemens AG (ETR:SIE) and KATHREIN-Werke KG are assisting on the project, eager to commercialize the design.

The new transmitter is printed on a tiny IC chip. [Image Source: KIT]

Aside from the terrific form factor -- which makes the new chip amenable to tablets, smartphones, laptops, and other mobile form factors -- the antenna also has excellent signal fidelity. In a larger long-range demonstrator (think routers), a signal was routed between two skyscrapers that were a kilometer (0.62 miles, for the metric-challenged) apart.

Professor Jochen Antes of KIT comments that the new design shows low attenuation in this frequency range, which enables broadband directional radio links. He comments, "This makes our radio link easier to install compared to free-space optical systems for data transmission. It also shows better robustness in poor weather conditions such as fog or rain."

The Germans shot the signal between skyscrapers in a test. [Image Source: KIT]

Some modems for the 802.11ac standard are already coming out. The new standard supports transfers of up to 1 Gbps for multi-station throughput and 500 Mbps for single-station throughput. Backwards compatible with the 2.4 GHz 802.11n, the pending new standard uses the 5 GHz band. It is currently in Draft 5.0 and is expected to receive early approval from the 802.11 Working Group by 2014.

I dunno if Mick doesn't understand physics or is purposefully putting sensationalist headlines into the articles, but this thing is junk. 240 GHz is not going to be a replacement for Wi-Fi, it is blocked by pretty much any solid object.

The second table here shows 245ghz penetration depth values. 1.4cm makes it essentially opaque to water (and humans); 35cm penetration in glass would make it viable as an inter building link if line of sight was available between two windows. The books's focus on chemical engineering, means it didn't look at any common structural materials as would be found in housing.

You're correct about the penetration depth, I should add that those signals will show very low diffraction. Which means that you will have to carefully point the antennas at each other or the link won't work. So this definitely isn't for mobile communications.

quote: uplink speeds of 40 Gigabits-per-second (Gbps) (at 240 Gigahertz (GHz)) -- roughly 137 times faster than the current 802.11n standard, which supports speeds of up to 300 Megabits-per-second (Mbps).

Take note that it's not that hard to achieve 40 Gb/s communications with current wifi technology. The problem isn't the sender/receiver, its the fact that you will use up the entire wifi bandwidth allocation and adjacent bands to achieve those speeds. What I find more impressive is that their transistors (HEMT) can operate at such high frequencies. That achievement unlocked a huge frequency slot at the top of the frequency table that allows for allocating a large chunk of bandwidth.